


Soul Deep

by Mokulule



Category: Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (2012), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Multi, Soul Bond, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-01-07
Updated: 2013-01-10
Packaged: 2017-11-24 01:17:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,710
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/628662
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mokulule/pseuds/Mokulule
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Premise; Tony and Loki are soulmates. </p><p>Tony has long since given up on the whole soulmate idea. He loves Pepper, they are in a stable relationship. Of course then New York and Loki happens to turn everything on its head. </p><p>Crack premise with a heavy dose of angst, and identity issues. 'Cause what would you think of your soul if its counterpart belonged to an insane, mass murdering, world conquering Norse God.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. And So It Begins

**And So It Begins**

When Tony was young, he like any other young person, had shook hands with everyone he'd met in search of that most coveted spark. Ever since the whole soulmate theory had been proven scientifically the party scene was all a big quest for skin on skin contact with _the one_ , which certainly explained why the trend had been towards less and less clothing (not that Tony ever would complain about that), cause really who didn't want to find the one person their very soul resonated with on a measurable level?

A lot of research had gone into the subject since the late sixties when _Resonance_ had first been recorded, accidentally really, in a Stark Industries research lab. A combination of wrong settings on a measuring device recording energy given off in whatever wavelength it was set to record and the first meeting of two scientists. The machine had been set for far to long and slow a wave for anyone to expect any energy readings with such a crude instrument much more suitable to measure high energy waves like gamma radiation, but at that moment of first skin contact there had been a spike much more akin to what you'd to see from the signature flash of an x-ray machine. The energy levels had then gone down rapidly only to stay on a low but stable and most importantly detectable level.

The scientists, who would very soon be Mr and Mrs Jones, went on to become the poster couple for the soulmate craze that followed. What they'd actually been researching was quickly forgotten, because really, who cared. The story always sounded rather out there when people first heard it, but then again penicillin was discovered because some douche forgot to cover his petridish and Viagra was discovered when the test subjects for a hypertension medicine in trial was very reluctant to give it up, even when it didn't do anything for their blood pressure.

Of course there had been plenty of anecdotes before that, the term soulmate and its equivalents wasn't exactly a new one, neither was old grannies telling their grandchildren how they would just know because there was that spark. Until the spark had actually been recorded though, most had thought that was more figuratively speaking and/or romantic BS.

What was now known however was that it was an actual phenomenon and that there had been no cases of the reported pairs ever having so great falling outs as to actually want to break up, if any falling outs at all. In fact the pairs were unusually harmonious in their relationships. That wasn't to say all couples were male-female in nature, much to the chagrin of various churches who'd at first cried Hallelujah for the research because for souls to resonate there had to be souls in the first place and if that wasn't proof... Even if scientists argued that just because something was resonating and the easiest term to use was souls, it didn't mean, it actually were souls in the eternal religious manner. Neither were all pairs sexual in nature for various reasons like extreme age differences or simply no sexual desire. Nor were all pairs strictly speaking pairs and though it was extreme rarity _Resonance_ had been recorded between up to four people. It was also worth noting that harmonious shouldn't be confused with sedate and law abiding as a notorious serial killing couple in the late 80's had proven, nicknamed the Hangman in the media before they knew it was a couple for the very literal game of hangman involved.

Despite the fact that there had been a steady rise of recorded soul pairs the divorce rate had been climbing and seemed every year to be at an all time high. It was postulated, most likely correctly, that because of the knowledge that there was a soulmate out there people were less willing to try their hardest to make relationships work. Several people had over the course of the forty years since the first discovery called upon logic to calm the masses pointing out the near impossible odds, but to rather little effect.

Tony genius that he is, had known the odds, but he'd been young and had just lost his parents, so who would really blame him his wild years of partying across the world? It wasn't like he had shirked his responsibilities much. He'd had Obie to take care of the business side of things. Despite Tony being the CEO since his 21st birthday everyone knew his true role was in Research and Development and as the seller of his innovations, which he'd done admirably.

By his 25th birthday everyone knew Stark weapons where the best in the business. He was at the top of the world so who cared what drunk escapades he got into in his spare time? Even the media got slightly tired of reporting his partying when it wasn't exactly news anymore and it wasn't like anyone and their mum couldn't find pictures of him naked on the Internet.

By the time he was 30 and hangovers wasn't so easily shrugged off, he'd basically given up on the whole soulmate thing. With how many people he'd been in skin contact with all over the world with no result whatsoever, he'd come to the conclusion it just wasn't meant for him. It wasn't like he was entirely alone anymore either; DUM-E, U, Rhodey, Obie, his current PA who had somehow lasted two years already (and she was starting to come back at him with these lovely dry comments he wasn't sure what to do with) and then there was JARVIS. JARVIS was in Tony's mind the closest he would ever get to a soulmate. He, because he was a he, was built to learn and grow. The single most advanced AI in history and when it came down to it, Tony Stark had built him to be his friend.

With slowing down all the partying (slightly, because who are we kidding) Tony began to take a more active role in the administration of his company. Not by much really, but apparently enough for Obie to hire terrorists to take him out 5 years later. Afganistan was a long due wake up call.

Point is, when the New York invasion came around Tony hadn't spared soulmates any thoughts for nearly a decade. He was in a relationship with Pepper and he loved her. She was all he could ever ask for, they'd worked hard to fit the way they did. They didn't fit perfectly like soulmates were supposed to, but years of grating on each other had created something akin to that.

Then he went and provoked (threatened) Loki without armor, because who was he kidding he was running on no sleep, he was angry (sad) because of Phil and adrenalin was on high because he could die any moment, it was was just how he dealt with threats.

The very last thing he expected, when Loki grabbed his neck with a snarl, was the jolt of energy that went through him warming him all the way to his toes and if he was any kind of poetic he'd say it felt as if his spirit soared. He knew without a doubt that this was it. Surprise had too many positive connotations. Shock just didn't cover it. Disbelief was definitely present. He could do nothing but stare wide eyed into the equally wide green eyes of the trickster. Shock, unease, confusion flashed in the green before they narrowed.

"You will all fall before me," he hissed. Then he defenestrated Tony.

He was too busy what with the _alien invasion_ to really give it much thought, but he was pretty sure he felt rather indignated underneath it all. Loki was his soulmate and he'd thrown him out a window for all intents and purposes to die. His soulmate had thrown him out a window. That was rather harsh.


	2. Sleep Is For The Weak

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony is dealing... Sorta...

**Sleep Is For The Weak**

Tony could not sleep, which was ridiculous because he never thought he'd ever been so tired. He raised himself onto his elbow and looked over Pepper. She slept peacefully with her back turned to him and a bare shoulder visible in the light of the arc reactor. He reached out and tenderly stroked the hair splayed out on her pillow. His heart clenched in guilt. She had been so worried and upset because she'd missed that call - there had been yelling involved much to the baffled amusement of the team - yet here he was, unable to sleep because he was thinking of Loki of all people.

Loki who was his soulmate. Loki who'd tried to conquer their world, killed several people, been the cause of death of even more. Loki who had a mind which in Bruce's words was a bag of cats, who'd killed Agent ( _Phil_ ), who Tony liked a lot more than he'd even admitted to himself, until he'd stood in front that blood soaked spot on the wall.

Yet for all of his animosity towards the trickster Tony'd been unable to keep the smile off his face at his dry; "if it's all the same to you, I'll have that drink now." He had style Tony would give him that.

He hadn't gotten it though. Barton especially wasn't having it, not that Tony blamed him, and the punch Loki had received from the archer had definitely smarted in his battered state.

Then there had been victory shawarma, silent, slightly awkward, but mostly the comfortable and tired kind. Loki had been left in the tower underneath the weight of the fancy hammer with Thor's assurance that he would not be able move.

When they came back to the tower, that was proven correct as the would be conqueror was still helplessly lying on the floor, now with several armed SHIELD agents surrounding and pointing weapons at him; they obviously hadn't been able to move the hammer either and therefore unable to bring in the prisoner.

A rather unamused Fury was standing in front of the ruined window with his back against the room when they walked in; Tony was starting to believe he had a thing for that. He turned around to face them and for just a moment Tony could have sworn there was relief in that one eye when it fell on him, but that was crazy and his exhaustion speaking surely.

Fury stared impassively at the group of now superheroes. "Will _someone_ tell me why _he_ ," he indicated Loki with a sharp gesture, "was found here without supervision."

Out the corner of his eyes Tony saw the guilty self-sacrificing look that came across the good Captain's face and just, Hell no. No doubt as the "leader" he was about to take full responsibility. He was still not seeing the power play going on underneath the surface. Before he could utter a word Tony strolled forward self assuredly (or strutted rather as he'd advised Bruce to do).

"Oh spare us, Nicky. Reindeer Games is hammered, something about only the worthy being able to lift it and ouch," he turned his head towards Loki, waiting until the god raised his head to meet his eyes before continuing with a wink, "that's gotta hurt."

There was a flash of rage in those intense emerald eyes before his lips split in a razor edged smile masquerading as pleasant. "You would know, Stark."

Tony returned the smile in kind and he had a clever quip just as the tip of his tongue, several people looked ready to interrupt and then the elevator opened to reveal Pepper. Whatever he'd been about to say died and left a sour taste in his mouth. He'd completely forgotten about Pepper. He made a noise somewhere deep in his throat.

"You," she started in a whisper glaring at him. Four long strides and he'd met her halfway.

"Me." He tried a disarming grin.

"Insufferable..."

"Pepper."

"Man..." Her voice rose steadily higher, both in volume and pitch. Her hands hit his chest once before fisting in his shirt.

"Pepper."

"What were you thinking?! You could have..."

"There wasn't exactly much time, what with the nuke..."

"... died! And then there was one missed call..."

"... and all. It would have taken out New York..."

"... and what do you mean? Oh God it was nuke..."

"... so I didn't exactly have much choice, I was the only..."

"Why was there a nuke?! Do have any idea how worried..."

"... one who could deal with it and you'll have to ask Fury..."

"... I was. I thought you were dead and then there was that missed..."

"... about that. I thought I was going to die can you blame me for calling."

"... call. And I didn't... And you," she slumped into his arms bonelessly, out of breath, and they both just stood there breathing for a while.

Someone shuffled their feet and Tony suddenly remembered the world didn't consist of just Pepper and him. Clearing his throat to warn her, he swung around bringing her easily to his side with a supporting hand on her waist. Her transformation from being hunched into his chest to standing straight with her no nonsense business face was pretty damn impressive.

They all scrambled to hide their amused/amazed faces, some more successfully than others. On one end of the scale was Fury who showed not a hint of emotion on the other end was Rogers who looked downright shell shocked. Then there was Natasha who didn't fit the scale because the fact that she looked amused meant she meant them to see.

"Pepper, let me introduce you. You already know Natasha. You've never actually met Fury. Then there's Rogers in the spangly outfit."

"Ma'am," he nodded politely.

"Barton's the archer, you should have seen some of the shots he took. There's Thor; it's his hammer on top of his brother, Loki." The trickster waved from his position on the floor with a smile that could only be described as sarcastic.

"And last, but not least..." He went from Pepper's side to drag out Bruce, who was trying very hard to make himself small and unnoticeable, the way he always did with people in his vicinity. There were some nervous movements from Fury's agents when Tony practically manhandled the guy who turned into an enormous green rage monster to stand in front of Pepper. Tony grinned over Bruce's shoulder into the exasperated look she gave him.

"... Doctor Bruce Banner, he is _awesome_. Can I keep him?"

"Tony," she sighed, but there was a smile twitching around her lips so that was a definite win, "unhand the poor man so I can say hello properly." He raised his hands from Bruce's shoulders in a gesture of surrender.

"Oh and I guess there's random agents numbers one to five, but I really don't know what use they have in this situation," he rambled while backing away to give Bruce back his space, grin becoming wider as he felt said agents' glares at his back. Pepper just shook her head at him before focusing back on Bruce.

"Pepper Potts," she introduced holding out her hand, "it's nice to meet you Dr. Banner."

He took her hand with an amiable, "likewise." Already they were bonding in their shared exasperation over his antics; all in a good days work.

Fury had then brought the impromptu rendezvous back on track, with the question of Loki and the tesseract and Thor had promptly informed him both were coming back with him to Asgard - not in quite so few words but that was the gist. The SHIELD director was strangely agreeable and Tony concluded he was one upping someone higher up the ladder by doing so. Someone had to have sent that nuke and it was obviously not Fury.

After that the spy and his posse left. Tony invited everyone to find a room to crash in. He tried not to follow Loki with his eyes as Thor towed him off with a firm grip on his left arm, but who was he kidding he was nearly outright staring.

Pepper and him got to finish their conversation behind closed doors. It was emotional and still too early for him to really deal with it. Then there were the news of Phil, which had lead to crying. He hadn't slept for nearly 48 hours and even normally he wasn't good at that stuff, he was still trying to tell himself the Agent's death hadn't meant anything to him and that particular coping mechanism was failing most spectacularly. Throw onto that the fact that he'd just seen the other end of that portal and there had been stuff _crawling_ there he could never even describe. Oh yeah, and his soulmate was a psycho killer, and somehow that was the _least_ distressing thing he could think about right now.

Tony sighed; if he couldn't sleep, he might as well do something productive. He repressed a groan as his body protested the proces of standing. With a last regretful glance in Pepper's direction he left the bedroom softly closing the door behind him. Letting go of the breath he didn't know he was holding he turned his mind away from the turmoil and onto the objective at hand.

"JARVIS," Tony called as he walked towards the private elevator with his workshop as the destination. Already he was going over all that he knew.

"What can I do for you, Sir?" The AI's pleasant voice asked promptly, knowing without having to be told they were getting down to business. JARVIS was the best.

"Give me everything available on the subject of soulmates and then scrounge me everything not available. I want to be the leading expert by tomorrow."

The elevator closed its doors behind him and automatically started moving for the workshop.

"Very well, Sir. Would this happen to have anything to do with the _Resonance_ spike earlier?"

"Didn't your _mum_ ever teach you not to ask questions you already know the answer to?"

"I'm afraid he was too busy getting caught naked on camera when that lesson was meant to take place."

Tony grinned, before asking in a false sympathetic voice; "I'm sorry, do you need to see a therapist for those parental abandonment issues?"

Had Jarvis had the capabilities he would surely have scoffed.

"Please sir, parental abandonment is hardly an issue of mine."

Tony would never admit it, but the reassurance warmed his heart, and if his grin turned into more of a smile, well, that was between him and JARVIS.

The elevator stopped with a ding (because Tony was a sucker for details like that) and the doors opened to reveal the darkened space the genius could navigate in his sleep. A double clap threw the wide room with its tables full of half-finished gadgets into sharp relief as the lights came on. DUM-E and U whirred their cameras toward him expectantly in greeting.

"Sorry guys, research mode tonight."

They both made disappointed noises; DUM-E being the most theatrical of the two made a full out whine and hung his head. Tony rolled his eyes fondly.

"Alright then DUM-E, you can get me my coffee," he remarked throwing himself into his spinny chair and kicking off so that he slid into the middle of the wide open space he used for holograms. A part of his mind absently wondered if DUM-E was so theatrical because Tony was enabling him. It was certainly possible, with DUM-E being the oldest, that he'd simply had more time to learn what tricks got him furthest with Tony or it was just the fundamental basics in their programming. U was a bit more advanced, so maybe he hadn't had the same need to perfect the kicked puppy look to save him when he made mistakes.

As it was DUM-E made as series of beeps proclaiming his happiness and zipped towards the small kitchenette as fast as his small wheels could take him. JARVIS would have gotten the coffee running the moment he showed intention to go to the workshop and all he had to do was get a cup and do the pouring.

Assured things couldn't go too badly he turned back to the real reason he was down here. Rotating his sore shoulders to loosen them up, he then brought his holographic interface on and up with an upwards sweeping motion reminiscent of a conductor. The lights dimmed to allow the countless glowing blue screens of research papers to appear sharp. He spun around in his chair, catching a few titles, but mostly it was just to get a look at the massive amount of information he would cram into his head in the next few hours. It seemed rather insurmountable if he was to be honest. It was a good thing he had JARVIS.

DUM-E came up to him, moving slower now that he was holding on to his creator's precious beverage. He was still moving too fast though and a few brown puddles bore witness, but the large cup was still more than half full, so it definitely counted as a success.

"Good boy," Tony mumbled gratefully, downing a large mouthfull, instantly feeling more awake. "Now go clean up that mess." He waved absently at the puddles. The lovable idiot bot happy from the praise didn't connect the spilled coffee with his earlier run, simply eager to do another job.

"Alright J." He cracked his fingers and took another gulp of coffee. "Lay it on me."

"I believe we shall start here, Sir." A file was highlighted and brought to the forefront. "It's a review, summarizing all the widely accepted theories on the subject."

"I assume you went through their sources," he said absently, already finished reading the page long introduction. A casual swipe through the air made the page turn.

"Of course, Sir. I've also highlighted parts that are questionable in conclusion or simply more of interest to your current situation."

Tony looked up from his reading, grinning, because how could he not.

"What would I do without you, J?" It was said flippantly, but there was a kind of lost sincerity underneath.

"I shudder at the mere thought."

Sassy AI.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Should anything feel weird, stilted or if you catch a typo feel free to inform me. I love English but it isn't my native tongue so there might be some strange wordings occasionally :)


End file.
